Consider other contemporary literature that deals with apocalypse as it relates to human behavior and current societal structures. Novels like Oryx and Crake (and the rest of the MaddAddam Trilogy) by Margaret Atwood, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch, and The New Wilderness by Diane Cook.
Nonfiction texts about the real possibility of different forms of apocalypse are also relevant, including The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert, and Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell.
While race isn't a prominent theme in Zone One, Colson Whitehead does touch on it. He...